Pyroxylin compound.



UNITED STATES fatented. October 13, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

PYROXYLIN COMPOUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 741,554, dated October13, 1903.

Application filed June 2, 1896. Serial No. 594.006. (No sp I To ail whomit may concern:

'Be it known that LROBERT O. SoHiiPPHAUs, of Brooklyn, New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture 'ofPyroxylin Compounds and in the Pyroxylin Compounds Resulting Therefrom,of which the followingis a specification.

While the invention relates generically to pyroxylin compounds andprocesses of manufacturing them, it more'particularly relates to newliquids for breaking down the fibrous structure of pyroxylin andconverting it into a homogeneous substance of any desired plasticityranging from 'a flowing solution into a stifijelly-like mass, accordingto the purposes for which the pyroxylin compound is to be used. I I

I have discovered that there are a number of closely related chemicalsubstances which combine the desirable solvent or converting powers ofthe ordinary etherin its well-known ether alcohol mixture with agreatlydecreased volatility and which are far less miscible with water.

It is the purpose of the present invention to utilize this discovery inthe manufacture of pyroxylin compounds and to produce pyroxylincompounds thereby which contain these substances or which result fromthe admixture of pyroxylin and these substances. As a class thesesubstances consist of the lower mixed alkyl oxids, or, in other words,the mixed ethers of the lower alcohols. These substances in conjunctionwith a suitable adjuvante. g. ,ethyl alcohol-are of great value in themanufacture of pyroxylin compounds.

v By the lower alcohols I mean particularly the aliphatic alcohols ofthefirst five seriesto wit, methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl.

All these are, with the exception of methyl or Wood alcohol, producedcommercially by fer mentation processes. Methyl alcohol is more commonlyobtained by the destructive distillation of w0od,although this, too, maybe made from certain sugar solutions by peculiar fermentation. The mixedalkyl oxide or mixed ethers which Iparticularly prefer aremethylisobutyl oxid, which boils at about centigrade, ethylisobutyloxid, which boils at 78 to 80 centigrade, methylisoainyl oxid, whichboils at 92 centigrade, and ethylisoamyl oxid, whichboils at 112centigrade.

It is knownthat any one of the loweralco hols may, to some extent,replace ethyl alcohol in the mixture of ether and alcohol, which is verycommonly employed as a solvent for pyroxylin; but while the greatvolatility of these combinations is of advantage in many applications inothers this very volatility is a serious drawback.

One object of the present invention is to produce pyroxylin compounds bythe use of substances which have far less volatility than the ordinaryether-alcohol mixture and which are far less miscible with water. Themixed a1- kyl oxide which I have enumerated possess when used instead ofsimple other both these characteristics and at the same time exert thepowerful solvent action desired. Any oneof these alkyl oxide is mixedwith a suitable quantity of an alcohol-as, for instance, ethyl or propylalcoholand the liquid solvent for the pyroxylin thereby prepared. Bycombining soluble pyroxylin of the'varieties used for the preparation ofcollodion and varnishes with these liquids pyroxylin solutions areobtained which are suitable, among other purposes, for varnishes and forthe preparation I have also found these mixed al- -kyl oxids of greatutility in the manufacture of solid compounds, especially in thepreparation of explosive pyroxylin compounds containing a mixture ofsoluble and insoluble guncotton where it is desired to gelatinate thesoluble variety only.

I am aware that Letters Patent of the United States have been granted toLeonard Paget,

the subject-matter of this application according to XVilliamsonsclassical method by treating a sodium alkylate (RONa)with a halogenalkyl (RBr)as, for instance:

(sodium ethylate) (amyl bromid) (ethylamyl ether) (sodium bromid) Thismethod, as will be well understood by chemists, (to whom particularlythis specification is addressed,) is merely a laboratory method ofpreparation, and I give it in order to distinguish clearly theconstitutional formula of the mixed alkyl oxids which I employ incarrying out this invention. These substances may be prepared on a largescale by other and less costly methods-such, for in stance, as thatdescribed in United States Patent No. 516,766, dated March 20, 1894, toKratft and Roos. The method of manufacture, provided it results insubstances having a constitutional formula similar to that described, isimmaterial to my invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by these Letters Patent, is-

l. The improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds,which consists in dissolving or converting pyroxylin with the aid of thesolvent action of a mixed ether, substantially as set forth.

2. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds,the treating of pyroxylin by the aid of one or more members of thefollowing group of substances: methylisobutyl oxid, ethylisobutyl oxid,methylisoamyl oxid, and ethylisoamyl oxid, substantially as set forth.

3. The process of gelatinating soluble pyroxylin, which consists intreating the soluble pyroxylin with a solvent that contains one or moreof the mixed alkyl oxids, substantially as described.

4. The process of gelatinating soluble pyroxylin, which consists intreating the soluble pyroxylin with a solvent mixture of one or more ofthe mixed alkyl oxids and an adjnvant, in contradistinction to a solventmixture in which the ether present is predominantly simple ether.

facturing pyroxylin compounds, the treating of pyroxylin by the aid ofethylisoamyl ether and an adjuvant.

9. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds,the treating of pyroxylin by the aid of a mixed alkyl oxid containing analkyl radical of less than four carbon atoms and an alkyl radical ofmore than three carbon atoms, with a suitable adjuvant.

10. A pyroxylin composition containing pyroxylin and ethylisoamyl etherwith a suitable adj uvant, substantially as set forth.

11. A pyroxylin composition containing pyroxylin and a mixed alkyl oxidcontaining an alkyl radical of less than four carbon atoms and an alkylradical of more than three carbon atoms with a suitable adjuvant,substantially as set forth.

12. The process of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds which consists inmixing pyroxylin with one or more members of the group of mixed ethersconsisting of ethylisobutyl oxid, ethylisoamyl oxid, ethylisopropyloxid, propylamyl oxid, but-ylamyl oxid, and propylbutyl oxid.

13. Apyroxylin composition eontainingpyroxylin and one or more membersof the group of mixed ethers consisting of ethylisobutyl oxid,ethylisoamyl oxid, ethylisopropyl oxid, propylamyl oxid, butylamyl oxidand propylbutyl oxid.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of June,A. D. 1896.

ROBERT C. SCHUPPI-IAUS.

In presence of J. 0. Ross, HAROLD BINNEY.

